Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127408
Defending NHRA Champion Scott Myers (near lane) defeated Jim Bernard (far lane) in the final, bu t lost the number one plate to David Schultz (not pictured). Myers wins race, Schultz the title By Todd Veney , . :3 POMONA CA, NOV 1 efending NHRA Champion J ohn Myers knew going in that no matter how fast he went at the season-ending Win ston Fin als - even if he won the ra in-delayed event for the third straigh t year, qual ified on the po le, and set the trac k record - he wou ld lose the number one plate to his nemesis, season-long points lead er David Schultz, unless Schu ltz completely collapsed. Myers did it all, qualifying number one with a trac k-record 7.69, ru n n ing another 7.69 in the first round, and resetting the mark for good at 7.68 on his winning fin al-round lap, thereby earn ing all 1182 a vai lable points (record runs not included). It didn't matter. Sch ultz, who h as come th rough in th e cru cial heats all year , won th e two rounds tha t everyo ne knew he would, taking th e championship -clinc her in the most anticl imactic drag race ever. After pos itioning himself on th e brink of his thi rd NHRA Champion sh ip with a foolproof first-round solo run (opponent Gary Moreno brok e behind the starling line), Schultz faced Byron Hines, th e legendary engine builder who po wered T erry Vance to a record 24 Nati on al titles and only recently began riding. D 24 To the crowd of 44,000 that lined the left side of rar ely used Pom on a Raceway, which serves as a parking lot on th e eastern strip of the Los Angeles County Fairplex 50 weeks a year , it must have looked like just ano ther heat. But racers and other insi der s knew before Sch ul tz and Hines went through the motion s of "racing" th ai the issu e had been settled. Un less he got lost on his way to the staging lanes, Schultz was not going to lose. H in es, who happens to be a coow ner of the Vance & H ines-prepped Kawasaki ZX-IO on wh ich Schul tz was trying 10 clinch the crown, wasn't abo ut to go out of h is way to beat Schultz, as Vance himself said over th e p ublic-address sys tem whe n th ey pulled to the line to race. Schultz and Hines brok e raci ng tradition and stared at eac h other as th ey approached the line. (Since drag racers have no control over opponent s, they genera lly run th eir own ra ce, starin g straight ahead, oblivio us to the gu y in the other lan e.) Wha t followed was perhap s the most ca u tio us, ca lc u lated side-by -si de launch of all tim e. Schultz, whose 1991 reaction-time average (to th e Christmas tree starting lights) is .082-second, too k a . 198-seco n d snooze before leavin g the line and still put a giant " holeshot" head start on Hines, wh o overslep t with an intentionall y late .355, the slowes t of the year for an y racer. Schultz won , 7.76 seconds/ 172.97 mph to H in es' 7.81/17 4.75, th ough th e race was never as close as the numbers ind ica ted because of Sch ultz 's threebike headstart. Hines later admi tted tha t it wasn' t pretty, but since his single-mi nded goal all year has been to provide Schultz the horsepower to stop Myers, wh o runs for George Bryce's rival Star Racin g team, wh o can blame him? In hi s first race as Champion.a semi final match with ear ly qualifying leader J im Bernard, Schultz lurched off the line long before the green light flashed, and disqualified him self. Bernard, who has been to the final at half of the NHRA races he has attended yet lost all but on e, slipped to a winning 7.93 when the clutch went ou t, whi ch left him nearl y two-t enths beh i n d Mye rs, who was bent on winning hi s last event as reigning cha mp. In win ning hi s three p reliminary heats, Myers, the on ly NHRA -riaer to run 7.6s (Sch u ltz ran severa l in ProStar 'compe tition last month in Atco, New J ersey) clocked another 7.69, a 7.75, and a 7.77 to eliminate Los Angelesarea riders Brian Chessmore, Tommy Bolton, and Tim Loomis. Only Loomis, who jumped Myers at the start and lost by just 17-thousandths of a second, came close. In the final , Bernard charged to a 7.73, tying his all-time personal best, and still lost to Myers' 7.68 in th e quickest race in history. The bittersweet win left Myers just 190 points less than one round-win - behind Schultz, clo ser than he had been at any point all year. Had Myers won any other round in '91 or set the long-standing NHRA record at the recent Chief Nationals at 7.691, instead of 7.61 (so that he cou ld have reset it, for 200 more points, with th e final-round 7.68 at Pomona), he'd have won h is secon d co ns ecu tive NHRA Championship like no one ever has : from behind. " I' ve only been racing for three years, and I've fini shed second, first, and second in the po ints," said Myers, always ' gra cious in victory or defea L "T ha t' s not a bad average." Schultz, who also won the 1991 IDBA and ProS tar champ ionships, was drag racing's top rider all year. He won more NHRA titl es (five) than all other riders combined, never spent a minu te out of first place, and in four head-to -head fin als aga in st Myers, won them all. 0'1 Results FINAL t99t NH RA POINT STANDINCS: I. David Schulu (8568); 2. J ohn Myers (8378); 3. J im Bernard (7802); 4. Paul C a.. (4566); 5. Steve Jo hnson (40S2); 6. SIC'Ve Meiterman (3946); 7. Norman ~Vi ne (3838); 8. T om Wol bers (3398); 9. Keith C ray (3122); 10. Byron Hines (2932).